When 2019 came to a close, 2020 was promising to be another busy year for Prince George.
However, everything changed in March when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“It looked like it was going to be another banner year,” says Mayor Lyn Hall in an interview with PrinceGeorgeMatters, adding the city had hoped to beat its record-setting 2019 building permits as its calendar was full of non-stop events scheduled throughout the year.
“It meant hotels would be full, it meant that restaurants would do well – it was a real opportunity for us to showcase the city and that all came to a screeching halt in March.”
Just a day after the pandemic was declared, on March 12 the World Curling Federation announced the cancellation of Women’s World Curing Championship scheduled to take place at the CN Centre.
The City of Prince George made many rapid changes from there that dramatically affected a number of services and operations, including the closure of all arenas, civic facilities, parks and playgrounds.
“The thing that really came out of 2020 is how resilient the city is, how resilient the residents are to be able to cope with the pandemic,” says Hall.
“I saw that every day and the things that people did and the things that people would do for other people. People stepped up and really helped folks in the community.”
Hall says despite the hardships of the year, the city still saw a lot of great things happen in 2020.
Some of the key moments highlighted by the city include that building permit values continued at or near their record-breaking pace, construction was completed on a new entrance and circulation desk at the Bob Harkins Branch of the Public Library, the city completed road safety improvements with the installation of new crosswalks and traffic signals and received a $10-million grant for Prince George’s new downtown pool which is the largest local infrastructure investment in a decade.
Even though Prince George saw some successes this year, the toll the pandemic has taken across the city is unmistakable.
“This has been the most difficult year I’ve had as mayor,” says Hall.
"There are still some fantastic things going on in our community but it is a real balance for me, and we know that we are not out of the woods, the pandemic is not in the rear view mirror yet, and we still have a tremendous amount of work to do the next number of months in 2021.”
Prince George focuses on social issues in 2020
At the start of the year, social issues, particularly in the downtown area, were on the minds of many residents as well as city council.
“It’s an opioid addiction crisis, it’s a number of things that are impacting this community from the social perspectives, as well as many others across the country,” says Hall.
Early in January, council selected the people and organizations that would make up the newly created Select Committee on a Clean, Safe, and Inclusive Community.
This committee was established by council at its Dec. 16, 2019 meeting to advise council and city staff on priorities and strategies related to key issues and work required for addressing social issues throughout Prince George with a focus on the downtown core.
Hall says the select committee’s work was put on hold for a number of months because of the pandemic, but will be presenting a draft report in January 2021 which will then come to council for review.
He says the city has already been doing a number of things to assist downtown and the entire community this year by stepping up bylaw services, picking up garbage and removing homeless camps.
“The thing I have talked about a lot is jurisdiction, who has jurisdiction or control over certain things, and our jurisdiction really is around bylaw services, the parks department, policing and those kinds of things,” explains Hall, adding that the city also advocates to the provincial and federal governments for assistance with social issues.
In February 2020, the city announced it had partnered with Northern Health and B.C. Housing to create an integrated health and housing facility on First Avenue, which would create 100 units for homeless and low-income individuals and families with supportive services on site.
Mayor Hall says they hope to break ground on that project in the spring.
B.C. Housing also announced this month, that it’s purchased the National Hotel also on First Ave. with the intention to renovate the building and provide 27 homes with wraparound supports by early 2022.
“I’ve been really vocal that if there is housing put in place there needs to be services applied tied to that,” says Hall.
“That is truly where our push is going to be in 2021, a lot of it has been in 2020, we need to provide service for folks — we need a sobering centre for example, we need assistance for youth, homeless and services for women in need. There is a whole myriad of things that we are going to continue to advocate for.”
City makes changes to curb project overruns
The city faced a number of capital projects that came in millions of dollars over budget in 2020, including the new Fire Hall No. 1 at $2 million over budget and the George Street Parkade which is $9.8 million over budget.
In the last few months, council has taken steps to curb overspending on capital projects including reducing the city manager’s authority to approve overages and restructuring many city departments.
As well as restructuring city departments, council approved reducing the city manager’s capital project budget amendment authority to authorize budget transfers equal to either five per cent of the budget for that capital project, or $100,000 per project – whichever is lower.
The changes will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2021, and the city’s current projects, which are still under the old authority, will be brought back to council for review.
“It is a reduction in the delegated authority so that more things have to come back to council so that is very important,” says Hall.
“I think we have a couple of pieces in place that puts council more in the forefront with more information coming to council so that is good and the project review is good and we will continue that on the scheduled basis.”
City faces COVID-19 financial challenges
Because of the pandemic and its related financial impact, the City of Prince George was working to address a pandemic-related budget shortfall of about $6.8 million in 2021 and in October sought seeking feedback from residents and businesses about how to do it.
The results of the survey will be provided to council at the outset of 2021 budget deliberations. On Oct. 27, Mayor Hall also hosted a Talktober Online Town Hall on Zoom and fielded questions from residents on a variety of civic issues.
During its Nov. 9 meeting, Prince George councillors announced that the city is receiving $6.1 million in grant funding from B.C.'s Safe Restart for Local Governments program.
“I think what happened is that we were losing about $850,000 a month from a revenue perspective because we didn’t have the events and had our facilities closed for quite some time but we did get recovery dollars from the government and that is going to assist us in closing the gap,” says Hall.
“We have asked staff to come back to us with a one, two and three per cent tax increase, so my mission is to try to make it as low as possible. I think we can do that. We know we need to assist not just businesses in the community but residents in the community.”
The funding can be used to address various expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic: revenue shortfalls, facility reopening and operating costs, emergency planning and response costs, bylaw enforcement and protective services, computer and other electronic technology costs, services for vulnerable persons, and other related costs.
The additional funding will be incorporated into 2021 budget deliberations in the New Year.
“Residents have had a tough, tough go of it," notes Hall. "People have lost their jobs, businesses have curtailed their operations and when we take a look at the budget discussions and setting the tax levy we have an opportunity to do something.”
Looking ahead to 2021
As building permit values continue at a near record-breaking pace, Mayor Hall says investment in Prince George is not slowing down.
“I think municipalities are going to play an integral role in the economic recovery of the province and I am going to be bold enough to say that Prince George is going to be in the forefront of leading that economic recovery.”
He says the city’s geographical location and the resource sector mean that Prince George is positioned very well to be able to move forward with that recovery.
“There’s a lot of things we can do and I don’t see 2021 slowing down from that investment perspective”
Hall adds that the main thing he hopes the people of Prince George bring into 2021 is positivity.
“We have come out of a very difficult year and I think the best way for us to approach 2021 is with real positivity and I think we are still going to see a growth in the city,” says Hall.
“For me, it’s about being positive and going into 2021 knowing that there is work to do and the pandemic has not left us but there are positive things on that front.”
